Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s visit to China and Russia this week and the military and energy cooperation agreements he signed put him on dangerous ground in his relations with the US, political analysts said.
“This trip shows he intends not only to break free of the US sphere of influence in matters of defense, but also to strike significant political links with the very powers that challenge US supremacy,” international studies professor Elsa Cardozo said.
Since Chavez came to power in 1999, Venezuela has become a major buyer of Russian weaponry on the premise it needs stronger defenses in case it comes under foreign attack. Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of plotting his overthrow.
During Chavez’s visit, Moscow on Thursday announced a US$1 billion loan to Venezuela to buy Russian arms. Both countries in 2005 and last year signed deals for US$4.4 billion of Russian weapons, including fighter jets, tanks and assault rifles.
“The United States has tried to disarm us, to boycott us — and we’ve got some old, US-made planes that can’t fly because the United States won’t sell us spare parts,” Chavez said.
“I went to Beijing, I went to Moscow and now we’ve got a fighter squadron better than the F-16s,” he said.
Chavez’s trip to Russia came only days after Moscow sent a pair of Tu-160 strategic bombers on a training mission to Venezuela, followed by a naval flotilla led by the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great.
The Russian warships were to take part in unprecedented joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean Sea, in a part of the world Washington has traditionally regarded as its backyard.
“Russia has new intentions, as it has shown in the Caucasus, and Chavez has absolutely irresponsibly opened the doors of the Caribbean and the Venezuela territory to them,” world politics analyst Maruja Tarre said.
“We don’t know why he’s done this. We don’t know how many Russians will come over. It’s something that should be discussed openly, publicly, but that’s not the case,” she said.
“Russia’s game is not Venezuela’s, and our country is facing unnecessary risks by taking on an agenda it doesn’t control,” Cardozo said. “In its bid to regain its superpower footing, Russia is sending the US a message: ‘We’ve got a welcome mat in South America.’”
So far, the US has downplayed the Venezuela-Russia overtures.
“Clearly, those two countries ... can work together as they see fit. I just don’t consider that a really significant threat at this particular point in time,” Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told reporters on Friday.
In another disconcerting move, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on Thursday offered Russia’s cooperation in developing nuclear power in Venezuela.
Also of international concern are Venezuela’s growing relations with Iran, a country on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism that could be dabbling with nuclear weapons.
“What threat can Venezuela’s relations with Iran and Russia pose, when the biggest threat to the world is the US empire’s very existence,” Chavez said recently.
But Tarre said “Latin America has vowed to stay a nuclear-free. And Venezuela, apart from not needing nuclear power plants, would be violating [nuclear-free] treaties it signed with other neighboring countries.”
During his three-day visit to China earlier this week, Chavez also announced he was buying 24 of China’s K-8 reconnaissance and training aircraft, which he said “Venezuela needs very much.”
Venezuela has also purchased Chinese radar stations in the past.
The K-8 sale went unconfirmed by Chinese authorities, who were very reticent about their relations with Venezuela. Chinese officials denied that any military cooperation agreements were signed during Chavez’s visit.
“Even the Chinese said they kept only trade relations with Venezuela, but the Russians have other goals. On their big chessboard, Venezuela is just a pawn to be cast aside when they choose, and that’s the end of it,” Tarre said.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person